


Back to the Beginning

by xsilverdreamsx



Category: K (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Canonical Character Death, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Minor swearing.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-08
Updated: 2013-12-08
Packaged: 2018-01-03 13:50:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1071191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xsilverdreamsx/pseuds/xsilverdreamsx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a slow progress, one that begins when they're twelve and eating ices under the hot summer sky.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Back to the Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> It started out as a five kisses fic and just. sorta. spiraled into something else. Idk.  
> Some liberties taken with the background stories of the characters. Beta'ed by Jo ♥

They’re twelve years old when Mikoto first kisses Reisi.

It’s mid-summer and they’re sitting on the grass, each diligently sucking away at fast-melting popsicles. Sunlight is trickling down onto the ground, slipping through between the leaves of the tree that is providing the much sought-after shade in the unbearable heat.

Mikoto swallows the last of the treat, and turns around. “Are you going to finish yours?” He gestures at the popsicle in Reisi’s hand, which is visibly melting from the summer heat.

It’s strawberry-flavoured, which Reisi isn’t particularly fond of. But he doesn’t want to hand it to Mikoto, so he crams the last chunk of it into his mouth and gives Mikoto a defiant look of _it’s mine, you can’t have it_.

A second later, he winces.

“What?” Mikoto asks.

“Brain freeze,” Reisi mumbles, before the pain strikes once more. It feels like someone is grabbing his head and squeezing it painfully. He closes his eyes to concentrate on his breathing, hoping for the pain to subside eventually.

There’s a rustling sound, followed by a light touch against his forehead. In surprise, Reisi opens his eyes to see Mikoto moving back, settling back down onto the grass. He’s scrubbing at his mouth with the back of his hand, and his cheeks are suspiciously red.

“What did you do?” Reisi asks, touching his forehead. The spot still feels warm, and tingly.

“I melted the ice away,” Mikoto says smugly. Reisi stares at him.

“Don't say dumb things,” Reisi scoffs.

Mikoto grins. “How’s your head?”

Reisi opens his mouth, the retort ready on his lips, then stops. Strangely, his head doesn’t hurt anymore.

 

*  
“Stay away from her.”

Reisi stares at the other boy. His name is Kida, who’s his senior by a year - and from what he’s heard, packs a mean left swing. Right now, he looks furious, probably fueled by false rumours that have cropped up recently.

“We’re just friends,” Reisi tried to explain. “I have no interest in her.” Misa, who is Kida’s girlfriend, tries to reason with Kida, but he shrugs her off, before grabbing at Reisi’s shirt, tugging him up by the collar.

“Don’t fuck with me,” he spits out. Reisi sees his arm is pulled back, his hand balled into a fist. He closes his eyes, waiting for the blow to happen.

“Oi.”

Startled, he opens his eyes to find that Mikoto is standing next to them.

“Get lost, Suoh. This is between me and him,” Kida snarls, but he sounds a little nervous.

Mikoto casually drapes his arm around Reisi’s shoulders. “Why would he be chasing Misa,” he drawls, “when he belongs to me?” He leans over, and kisses Reisi.

It’s brief - _too_ brief, in Reisi’s opinion - and Mikoto pulls away just as soon as his lips brush against Reisi’s cheek.

Everyone is staring at them now. Even Kida is gaping at Mikoto. His grip on Reisi’s collar slackens.

“You’re _still_ here?” Mikoto asks Kida, his eyes narrowing into slits.

Kida lets go of Reisi immediately, and nervously steps back, before bolting. Misa throws them an apologetic look before she hurries after him.

Reisi's cheeks are still feel hot from embarrassment, his beating heart thumping in his ears loudly and drowning out the catcalls and whistles from their classmates.

They don’t talk about it after that. It’s like that summer all over again, except that they’re already fourteen and Reisi feels more confused than before.

 

*  
“So,” Mikoto drawls, as they lie on top of the roof of Reisi’s house, several days before Reisi’s sixteenth birthday. He pauses, and lights up a cigarette.

Reisi waits. He can hear the sounds of his mother bustling about in the kitchen. Several streets away, he can hear the low rumble of a truck making its way back from the city, mingling with the laughter of children playing at the field nearby.

Instead of finishing his sentence, Mikoto takes another deep pull at his cigarette, before holding it out in front of Reisi. He eyes it for brief second, before taking it.

It tastes _horrible_. He chokes, his eyes tearing up a little, and hurriedly hands the cigarette back, unable to keep the grimace off his face. With a grin, Mikoto plucks the stick out of his fingers and takes another pull from it. As Reisi watches, Mikoto ends up blowing smoke rings into the air.

“What were you going to say?” Reisi refuses to admit that he’s impressed by the display. (Secretly, he is.)

Mikoto gives him a long, considering look, before he finally answers. “I’m taking a nap,” he says, and shifts his body around. Before Reisi can protest, his head is resting on Reisi’s thigh, using it as a pillow. He closes his eyes.

Several seconds later, he begins to snore.

Reisi lets out a huff of annoyance. “I’m not your pillow,” he grumbles, but if he ends up sliding slowly into a better sitting position, trying not to wake Mikoto up; if his fingers end up brushing against the ends of his hair, lightly carding through the fiery strands, he doesn’t mention it to Mikoto.

And when his thumb brushes gently across Mikoto’s lips, Reisi pretends for a moment that it’s his own lips touching them instead.

 

*  
“How did you get them?” he asks as he stares at the cuts on Mikoto’s palms.

“Bunch of punks trying to jump Kunasagi after work.” A dry chuckle escapes. “Didn’t expect them to bring knives.”

“I always knew you were stupid.” Reisi begins to search for the first-aid kit that he keeps by his bedside table. “We need to get that treated.”

“I’m fine,” Mikoto insists, but Reisi ignores him, finally locating the kit. There’s no disinfectant in the kit, but he knows where the bottle of it is, kept away in the medicine cabinet downstairs. He just needs to sneak out of the room and grab it, before his parents wake up and catch him out of bed past midnight, or worse, find out that Mikoto’s snuck into his room.

He manages to acquire it successfully, and ends up sitting crosslegged on the floor of his room, treating Mikoto’s cuts - which were less serious than he had thought - before wrapping the bandages around his hands.

“You done playing the nurse?” Mikoto asks, his lips curled into a small smirk. “It’s fine, quit fussing over it.”

“You’ll end up bleeding all over the floor if it wasn’t for me,” Reisi retorts. “There,” he says, looking proudly at his workmanship. Without thinking, he leans down and presses his lips against Mikoto’s covered palm.

When he looks up, he’s caught by the odd expression on Mikoto’s face before it occurs to him what he’s just done.

His face turns hot.

The awkward silence hangs in the air, before Reisi clears his throat, stepping away and out of Mikoto’s reach.

At eighteen, Reisi discovers that he might be a little in love with Mikoto.

 

**interlude.**

When Reisi finally corners Mikoto at his home - the same home that he hasn’t been living in for the past week - he tries his best not to show his agitation on his face as he asks Mikoto where he has been.

“Busy,” Mikoto tells him, lighting a cigarette.

“You couldn’t answer my calls?” Reisi tries to keep the hurt out of his voice.

Mikoto raises his eyebrow. “What are you, my wife?” he jokes. “I told you I had something to do.”

Reisi takes a deep breath. It’s not easy dealing with Mikoto Suoh, especially of late, but he figures that he has enough patience to handle it.

Apparently not. 

When he finally dares to look at Mikoto, he sees in his eyes that he’s changed, that _something_ \- whatever it is - has made him different. And it’s at that moment that he begins to feel Mikoto slipping away.

It’s only years later that Reisi understands why when he finds himself in the middle of the city, his blue Aura flickering around him as he comes face-to-face with the Red King.

The hair is longer, the eyes colder, but Reisi recognizes the same, slow, curl of Mikoto’s lips right away.

 

*

The problem with drunken kisses, is that you never know if the other person will remember them.

Reisi does, right down to the bitter taste of cigarettes on his tongue, the heavy aftertaste of whiskey, and the tingle on his lips.

He leaves Suoh sleeping peacefully on his bed, closing the front door quietly behind him.

At twenty-three, Reisi wills himself to forget.

 

*  
Mikoto's smile wavers, the small crooked line of his lips fading as he slumps forward, his hands gripping Reisi’s shoulders. His cheek is cold against Reisi’s lips, his final words echoing in Reisi’s head.

"You’ve played a cruel joke, Suoh," Reisi tells him quietly, ignoring the wetness that’s spilling all over his hands. Too many have been lost today, and now, another. “We could have found another way.”

Reisi is twenty-four, and for the first time in his life, he’s never felt more alone in this world.

 

**let’s go back to the beginning.**

He doesn't think, doesn't say anything, except to stare at what he thought had been a ghost. Except that it - _he_ isn’t, standing right in front of him, looking at him as if he had eyes for no one else.

This time, when Mikoto kisses him, Reisi thinks of strawberry popsicles and summer, of falling in love through the years. It doesn’t matter how old he is anymore, only that Mikoto is here with him, finally.

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, just the stories.


End file.
